DAILY READINGS
From Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji
697
You must remember that no matter in which prayer place you meet it is always through God's grace. Whether you meet in an ashram, in a temple, in a mosque, a church or a synagogue it is only because of God's chosen grace that God brings you to that particular place. And because He brings you there it shows God's special love for you, to protect you from further distracting thoughts that are distracting your mind away from God. As human beings we are very grateful to God for this.
Our great teachers, the saints and sages, said that we have a special privilege because we are special in many ways in God's eyes. Human beings are supposed to be the highest manifestation of God's image, God's power and God's glory.
Some people may say, 'Aren't the angels higher than man?' Even the angels have to come to the level of man to gain angelhood or come to the state of man to become God.
In the Bible there is a story that Satan was the greatest angel [Lucifer] of God; yet God kicked him down and he has come here as Satan. Now you can see that even that which lived next door to God had to come back to this Earth to work out his bad karma, to do good dharma and go back to God. From that point of view human beings are special manifestations of God's grace, love and power - to go back to God Himself. We have been given an opportunity to do this in these meetings in this kind of place [i.e. the ashram].
Call upon God to purify your heart, to purify your mind, to purify your thoughts. When God purifies them you say to God, 'Now God, give me love to love You.' What a wonderful thing that is. God has to give you love to love God. And you have no pride that it is your love that you are giving to God, it is God's love that you are giving back to God.
1) Care should be taken by the reader to understand and take Swamiji's words in these postings, in context. Every teaching or instruction that he gave was specific to the people who were with Swamiji at the time. 2) Mouse-over the words highlighted in red in the posting for further explanation or links.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click HERE for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.
The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna - read online
Reference websites - please mouse over the name and click to connect:
Ramakrishna Math and Mission Ramakrishna Centre of South Africa Ramakrishna Dham